SIM Cards can be Hacked – Report

SIM Cards can be Hacked – Report

Karsten Nohl, a German cryptographer & a chief scientist at risk management firm Security Research Lab revealed the fact that our SIM cards are vulnerable to hacking.
He also highlighted that this SIM card hacking can easily control all the mobile functions without letting the user know – like making calls, sending SMSs, doing mobile payments and it can even create a duplicate copy of your SIM card.

[blockquote cite=”Karsten Nohl”]
Give me any phone number and there is some chance I will, a few minutes later, be able to remotely control this SIM card and even make a copy of it.
[/blockquote]

[blockquote cite=”Nohl”]
SIM cards are essentially mini-computers with their own operating system and pre-installed software. To maintain security, many rely on a cryptographic standard called DES (digital encryption standard), which was invented by IBM in the 1970s and improved by the NSA.
[/blockquote]

Nohl will officially present his findings at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on July 30, 2013.

All these treats can easily affect services like mobile Payments and the use of NFC. The SIM-card based payments are widespread in Pakistan like Timepey, Easypaisa and mobicash that allows mobile users to send money to their loved ones from all over the country in just factions of seconds.

The mobile money transfer services have facilitated the mobile users in Pakistan but now it seems like it can also facilitate the terrorism in our country and it can certainly create a problem for millions of mobile users in Pakistan.

The mobile world moves a lot faster than any other technology business, so operators and SIM card manufacturers need to step up their security systems and protect the users’ privacy.